Gyaltsen Tashi wrote:I am thinking in terms of what to do to get yourself inspired and comfortable, to sit longer and with more devotion. Not rushing to get the job done. it's like making tea like Rinpoche says.

If what you are asking is like making a cup of tea, then i can share with you what i have learned about making tea.

I rarely drink coffee anymore. Mostly tea nowadays. And I have learned that a cup of tea boils down to individual taste. What one person likes may not be suitable for another person. There is no such thing as the perfect cup of tea in the abstract. There is only the perfect cup that you are drinking.

Now as practitioners, we have a range of options. If we are brewing a cup for ourselves, then we know what we like, and will make it accordingly. But if someone else offers us a cup, then something different occurs.

We can simply drink what we are offered. That is one way. We may not like the tea but we drink it anyway. That is called being polite.

We can also say, "I don't like this tea" and refuse it or send it back. That is called being rude.

What to do?

So you see, it comes down to individual taste and individual action. We can accept what is offered (but don't have to) or we can reject what is offered (but don't have to). This is called being free.

One another option is to never enter a house where tea is served. That is called being impractical.

When you are drinking a cup of tea, only you know how that tea tastes. It might be bitter, it might be sweet, or something else entirely. It is worth paying attention to how to drink a cup of tea. This is called knowing yourself.

And when you know yourself, eventually, you have the opportunity to know all things.

I hope this is helpful.

I am well aware of my idiocy. I am also very aware that you too are an idiot. Therein lies our mutuality.

Gyaltsen Tashi wrote:I am thinking in terms of what to do to get yourself inspired and comfortable, to sit longer and with more devotion. Not rushing to get the job done. it's like making tea like Rinpoche says.

So, I thought of something else Gyaltsen Tashi.

Once many years ago, I heard Sogyal Rinpoche say in a teaching that the teacher's whole job was to inspire you.

So what inspires you?

Because in my experience, once you find something/someone that inspires you, you will automatically sit longer and with more devotion. Then your practice will just happen.

I am well aware of my idiocy. I am also very aware that you too are an idiot. Therein lies our mutuality.

Gyaltsen Tashi wrote:How do you create an atmosphere of practice as Rinpoche says?

fake it 'til you make it. Initially the "atmosphere of practice" may have to be contrived. This is where numbers/accumulations are important, they get you to sit your ass down and practice. After a (long) while you feel an urge to practice. It becomes a type of addiction. You don't have to force it, it forces you. After a (longer) while the distinction between practice and post practice blurs. You do not feel obliged, yet your state of mind is a "practice" state anyway. Now you are really practicing!

"On the other hand, maybe somebody comes to this master, this new, new master with not so much enthusiasm, sort of maybe as a hobby you know, or he or she happens to have lots of time. Then it is maybe wrong to ask this student to cook for only one year. Maybe this student needs to cook for seven years."

I have this resistance towards accumulations. But I like to read. I don't mind reading the Four Thoughts again and again. Due to family circumstances, I can't visit centres regularly.

"Milarepa said – my religion is a religion of not deceiving oneself and not to be embarrassed to myself with myself."

My religion is one of shame. I am always shameful about not being good enough or worse having evil thoughts and motives.

"Only you can tell. So you could be sitting there until your butt swells and you could be dwelling in the past or dwelling in the future or completely be dull and think that you have practiced the dharma."

I have given up on sitting. I can count my breath perfectly, but there doesn't seem to be much point to it. Off the cushion, I'm still the same. So I get bored with the practice that doesn't seem to be effective for me

"Many of these instructions tell us go to the mountains, become homeless, go and you know, dwell in the forest. The modern world does not allow you to do that. You can get arrested."

I keep reading instructions that says the only way is to leave/abandon the home life.

"Places like London –even to go out of your house, you feel like there‟s a tax just going out."

I think it's worse in Singapore....

"So for instance, when we teach Vajrasattva; in the Vajrasattva, one of the main components of the practice is guilt. If you don‟t haveguilt , then you don‟t practice."

Lazy bastard that I am, I only see the point of doing Vajrasattva when I feel guilty for something.

Gyaltsen Tashi wrote:I usually have some emotional problem - agitation, boredom, depression - to solve before I can sit.

You could try sitting anyway with these feelings and gently asking yourself mentally, while you're being tormented by them, "who is the one feeling this agitation/boredom/depression?" And you gently mentally "look at" whoever or whatever it is that is perceiving those negative emotions. Who's there experiencing that? That sort of thing. You could try doing this and see what you find out. I think it's important to go into this without preconceived notions of what you will discover, because you can block the process or impute stuff onto your experience. You don't wanna do it trying to find something you suspect will be there, but rather just discover firsthand what is or isn't there. If you have a guru yoga practice, it's especially good to do this kind of practice within the context of guru yoga (at the end when you dissolve the guru into you, or vice versa, depending on how your sadhana is written).

It appears to me the reading suggestions aren't out of context, as he's discussing looking at spiritual life from different angles - some for critical thinking, others for logic etc

I remember years ago a Lama getting a bunch of us to read "Dragon Thunder" by Diana Mukpo about her life with Chogyam Trungpa - and it really hurt my head, challenged my views and got the cogs turning for sure

I Like this idea below... (I do something along those lines, except I have a separate account that's named 'dharma bills' so that i don't feel so begrudgingly about paying my bills..)

I am suggesting to have, to open a new account in the BANK, okayactual bank, financial bank. And this is your practice fund. Make a vow, every timeyou make a little bit of money, put in some and you don‟t withdraw out of this. Andyou, this money you will be ONLY using for the dharma purpose, dharma practice;not for iPod, not for anything else. You can use for retreat in the future, going for pilgrimage, making offerings to buddhas and bodhisattvas. Also if somebody gives you a present of money or something like that, if you take alittle bit in there, the person who is giving will also get some benefit. Therefore youwill not be karmic-ly indebted, in debt.

Not sure if I can put this here or I have to start another thread. I had a question for Rinpoche which I sent to Khyentse Foundation but there was no reply:

"Dear Rinpoche,

Tashi Delek!

In Singapore this year in bestowing the Bodhisattva vows, you talked about making vast vows and aspirations to become the Chinese premier or the American President. But isn't there a lot of teachings that warn against power and worldly ambition? And especially the example of the Buddha who renounced world-turning kingship? Are our present circumstances any different?

Gyaltsen Tashi wrote:Not sure if I can put this here or I have to start another thread. I had a question for Rinpoche which I sent to Khyentse Foundation but there was no reply:

"Dear Rinpoche,

Tashi Delek!

In Singapore this year in bestowing the Bodhisattva vows, you talked about making vast vows and aspirations to become the Chinese premier or the American President. But isn't there a lot of teachings that warn against power and worldly ambition? And especially the example of the Buddha who renounced world-turning kingship? Are our present circumstances any different?

Gyaltsen Tashi wrote:Not sure if I can put this here or I have to start another thread. I had a question for Rinpoche which I sent to Khyentse Foundation but there was no reply:

"Dear Rinpoche,

Tashi Delek!

In Singapore this year in bestowing the Bodhisattva vows, you talked about making vast vows and aspirations to become the Chinese premier or the American President. But isn't there a lot of teachings that warn against power and worldly ambition? And especially the example of the Buddha who renounced world-turning kingship? Are our present circumstances any different?

Please explain this clearly to me. Thanks, Rinpoche.

Regards, Gyaltsen Tashi

No, just seems you misunderstood a bit. In the context of the Bodhisattva vows the accent in your practice is benefiting other sentient beings, if you are the president you certainly can benefit a lot of sentient beings. Buddha renounced being a king in order to find a path to free sentient beings from suffering, old age and death. This is two different ways to benefit sentient beings not one is right and the other is wrong. But perhaps only one of the path feels right for you.

/magnus

We are all here to help each other go through this, whatever it is.~Kurt Vonnegut

"To reject practice by saying, 'it is conceptual!' is the path of fools. A tendency of the inexperienced and something to be avoided."- Longchenpa

"Even though you have recognized your essence, if you do not get accustomed to it,You will be carried away by the enemy of thoughts, like a small child in a battle field.So long as you are not free from the limitations of accepting and rejecting,That long will you not recognize the view of the innermost secret heart-essence."

heart wrote:No, just seems you misunderstood a bit. In the context of the Bodhisattva vows the accent in your practice is benefiting other sentient beings, if you are the president you certainly can benefit a lot of sentient beings. Buddha renounced being a king in order to find a path to free sentient beings from suffering, old age and death. This is two different ways to benefit sentient beings not one is right and the other is wrong. But perhaps only one of the path feels right for you.

heart wrote:No, just seems you misunderstood a bit. In the context of the Bodhisattva vows the accent in your practice is benefiting other sentient beings, if you are the president you certainly can benefit a lot of sentient beings. Buddha renounced being a king in order to find a path to free sentient beings from suffering, old age and death. This is two different ways to benefit sentient beings not one is right and the other is wrong. But perhaps only one of the path feels right for you.

/magnus

Might be too dangerous for me. I have delusions of grandeur.

So just keep an very open intention to benefit all sentient beings then.

/magnus

We are all here to help each other go through this, whatever it is.~Kurt Vonnegut

"To reject practice by saying, 'it is conceptual!' is the path of fools. A tendency of the inexperienced and something to be avoided."- Longchenpa

"Even though you have recognized your essence, if you do not get accustomed to it,You will be carried away by the enemy of thoughts, like a small child in a battle field.So long as you are not free from the limitations of accepting and rejecting,That long will you not recognize the view of the innermost secret heart-essence."

Gyaltsen Tashi wrote:I am thinking in terms of what to do to get yourself inspired and comfortable, to sit longer and with more devotion. Not rushing to get the job done. it's like making tea like Rinpoche says.

So, I thought of something else Gyaltsen Tashi.

Once many years ago, I heard Sogyal Rinpoche say in a teaching that the teacher's whole job was to inspire you.

So what inspires you?

Because in my experience, once you find something/someone that inspires you, you will automatically sit longer and with more devotion. Then your practice will just happen.

Gyaltsen Tashi wrote:I am thinking in terms of what to do to get yourself inspired and comfortable, to sit longer and with more devotion. Not rushing to get the job done. it's like making tea like Rinpoche says.

So, I thought of something else Gyaltsen Tashi.

Once many years ago, I heard Sogyal Rinpoche say in a teaching that the teacher's whole job was to inspire you.

So what inspires you?

Because in my experience, once you find something/someone that inspires you, you will automatically sit longer and with more devotion. Then your practice will just happen.

Gyaltsen Tashi wrote:I am thinking in terms of what to do to get yourself inspired and comfortable, to sit longer and with more devotion. Not rushing to get the job done. it's like making tea like Rinpoche says.

So, I thought of something else Gyaltsen Tashi.

Once many years ago, I heard Sogyal Rinpoche say in a teaching that the teacher's whole job was to inspire you.

So what inspires you?

Because in my experience, once you find something/someone that inspires you, you will automatically sit longer and with more devotion. Then your practice will just happen.

Gyaltsen Tashi, I can't help but feel sad when I read your stuff in this thread. For one, I hear you saying dozens of things I tell myself all the time or used to tell myself...and I hope you'll read carefully my heartfelt advice. It has helped me alot.

Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche says most of us on the path aren't necessarily people of incredible faith or perfect devotion or something. It's just that when the shit hits the fan, we realize nothing else makes sense. If you don't agree, you can't force the Buddhadharma into your life. Nor can you escape it. You can't treat it like it's something separate from you.

Stop panicking yourself and comparing yourself against measures of 100,000 accumulations or feeling like you have to get up at a certain time every day or practice in a certain way or practice so much or so many hours or thinking you'll never be like a Great Master like DJKR or sit their poking holes in other masters as a way to feel better about not striving hard--no matter what you do, you have heard the teachings. You have a tether to a realized being, and through his influence and your own innermost secret Guru, the Buddha nature is going to bust out of you. Whether you like it or not. That does that mean you can just sit back...anyway my point is that you're already on path, and the path is the destination. It has to be nondual otherwise it's the same as all the garbage of theistic and nihilistic views.

All of this garbage and doubt and obstacles are the exhaustion of your harmful karma. Relax. Many Tibetans, historically, had absolutely no freedom to practice the Dharma. But they lit a single butter lamp on holy days or made some other small prayers whenever they could with the deep, deep earnest wish to benefit beings. I have faith that these kind of practitioners sometimes have as much merit as the ones who light thousands of candles, pray millions of repetitions.

Nobody can do better than their best. Are you trying to do that?

Whenever I think I have to do better than my best, its an excuse I'm using to avoid doing anything at all.